Experience a worldwide, virtual, culture exchange in November, 2014. Adventure '14 is an opportunity to work with students from another culture. The only equipment needed is a computer, webcam, reasonable Internet connection, and a projector. Signing up indicates an interest, not a commitment. Sign up requirements: contact information about the school or group, age range, and website address. Also, indicate if there is an interest in pairing up with others by subject, language, or interests. Although there are places to fill in Twitter account information, having a Twitter account is not required. Get to know about people in another culture, embrace the opportunity to work together on a global project, and create a website together (optional).

In the Classroom

Consider the many ways your class could collaborate. Science students can collaborate on labs, history students on research, and math students can solve some of the world's most difficult equations together. ESL/ELL students might collaborate with students who want to know about their experiences where one does not speak the language.

Partner teachers can choose a collaborative platform students can use to brainstorm ideas they have about the other country and culture before they meet. Use a projector and Lino, reviewed here, (no membership required) to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge about the culture with whom they will be working. Once the project is underway, go back to Lino occasionally, and add what they learned and whether it coincides with the students' original ideas. Ask the partner class if they will fill in the areas and ideas missed on your Lino. Also, consider asking the partner school to blog together. It is amazing the improvement you will see in student writing when they know they have an authentic audience! If you never blogged before, you might want to check out TeachersFirst Blog Basics for the Classroom. Use the blogs as a way to discuss topics related to both culture AND your curriculum: environmental topics, different types of government, or simply day to day life.

Create one frame cartoons or entire comic books -- easily! Start by uploading a funny picture and create a comic from that. You can create your comics anywhere from any device and access them from the same device or any other. The drag and drop interface ensures ease of creation. Choose from a variety of options for characters, layout options, backgrounds, props, captions, and special effects. Choose options to use and drag and drop them onto the comic page. Simply undo or delete objects, move objects backward, forward, add text captions, and zoom in and out of the page. Register with the site (email required) to save, share, and print out creations. You can create a single page comic or full book length comics. You can download as a pdf or even share as an ebook! Some of the instruction videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, they may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid reviewed here to download the videos from YouTube. Mobile apps are available, including "lite" (free) versions.

In the Classroom

In classes with younger students, use a whole class account under teacher control. In a BYOD classroom, let students set up their own accounts and use the app versions. When studying characterization, create a dialog to show (not tell) about a character. Use the dialog box (bubbles) to explain the sequence of a story, a science concept, or school news! Create a political cartoon. Why not use the comic strips for conflict resolution or other guidance issues (such as bullying). Emotional support and autistic support teachers can work with students to create strips about appropriate interpersonal responses and/or feelings. Sometimes it is easier for students to write it down (or create pictures) than use the actual words. World language and ESL/ELL teachers can assign students to create dialog strips as an alternate to traditional written assessments. Let your creative (or gifted) students take the comics even further by making them into entire books!

Create your own GeoGuessr game using five Google Map street view locations. NO membership is required! These challenges show actual views of mystery locations for people to guess where they are. (See this review of GeoGuessr to see how the challenges work.) Move the person to the desired map location to set a location for each round. When complete, GeoSettr generates a URL that will take people to your unique GeoGuessr page.

In the Classroom

Make geography come to life by gamifying it! Create (or have students create) landform games (what do these locations have in common), culture games, travel collections, etc. Use this tool to explore world cultures (or languages), geography, historical locations, famous battle locations, and more. Demonstrate how to create a game, then have students create and play games of their own. Pair this activity with What Was There, reviewed here, and have students use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare and contrast changes over time.

Make reading a multimedia experience that today's students expect. Booktrack adds movie style soundtracks to favorite stories and books. You can add your own sound effects and music to the stories and books you love. There are thousands of titles already available, both classic and contemporary; these include novels, poetry, and short stories that are in the public domain. Find them by clicking "Free to Use" and scrolling down a bit. All of this is free on a computer, or with free iOS and Android apps. There are several ready-to-go lessons at elementary, middle, and high school levels. When using on a computer, BookTrack works best in Chrome and may not function at all in some browsers. Watch the short tutorials to learn how to create a book with a soundtrack.

In the Classroom

Click "Teachers" and scroll to the bottom of the home page to find free lessons. Work together with your music teacher to find classical music selections that make great background music. Have students choose a story and create a "read aloud" with music and sound effects. Challenge students to capture the feel or tone of current events articles, science articles, or poems they have created. Use music and sound effects to enhance historical events or battles in social science. At the end of literature circles, have students select the best events in a story and put music and sound effects together with them. Watch the short tutorials to create your class and to create a book with a soundtrack. FanFiction users may want to put sound effects or music to their own writing. In the library/media center, share BookTracks to interest students in some of your "old" books!

Audio Expert is a free and simple online audio editor, file converter, and sound recorder. This tool has all of the standard functionality of an audio editor. It provides students and teachers with an easy way to create a podcast or even a ringtone for a cell phone. The Audio Expert can also be used as a powerful audio file converter that will allow you to modify your file format, bit rate, and frequency. If your computer is equipped with a camera and microphone, you can use Audio Expert to record your own sounds. You can download completed files.

In the Classroom

Use Audio Expert in early grades to promote literacy by recording your students and creating an audio portfolio record of their reading. Use this tool with ESL/ELL students to practice fluency and hearing themselves speak. Use Audio Expert to record parents, principals, lunch ladies, librarians, relatives, and bus drivers all telling your favorite class story. During writing time, allow students freedom from the pencil to express their true creative voices. Also dabble into digital storytelling to create a lesson in adding voice, emotion, and characterization. Record audio interviews at a local nursing home, fire stations, or museums to recollect times such as wars, the Great Depression, Civil Rights Movements, or as a primary source at memorable events. Record world language conversations as a student project. Make music class or the school band a gold recording!

Create, share, and explore learning lists of web-based resources with LessonPaths (formerly MentorMobEDU). Similar to Pinterest, but in a slide show format. This site shows thumbnails of each resource. LessonPaths allows you to view and create "playlists." Browse through playlists by subject or keyword. Each playlist has links to online content correlated to the topics. As you browse through each playlist, choose Next to view an overview of each link. At the left side, roll over the list of steps to find out what to do at each stop on the playlist. Click within that link to go to the web content displayed. When ready, create an account and begin to create your own playlists.

In the Classroom

Browse to find ready-made activities for classroom use. Create your own playlists for organizing classroom resources found on the web along with tasks to do at each place. Create playlists for students to view and/or add to as a whole class activity. Some ideas include things that use energy, food groups, or groups of items for primary level vocabulary/practice (clothing items, farm animals, clock faces for telling time, etc.). In lower grades, create very simple sequences of activities for students to try from a class computer center or at home. Since your directions will require reading, keep it very simple! In higher grades, make playlists for different subjects or units where you collect videos, images, classroom blogs and websites, etc. Share your playlists with students and parents by putting the link on your class website. Have them work through the tasks at their own pace. Challenge your older students to create their own playlists with thought-provoking questions as a product from a research project. For example, they can compile information about a disease and how it is transmitted, asking questions at each resource. (What a great way for them to read informational text and then generate questions that go further!) Teachers of Gifted or regular ed teachers trying to design independent tasks for gifted students to do will love the flexibility of the playlist format.

Picfull is an easy to use, online photo editor that doesn't require registration. Upload your picture from any computer to begin. Choose from photo effect options such as red-eye removal, vintage, dark, or pencil strokes. Use options within each photo effect to create your desired image then choose "Save" to view and download your finished image to your computer.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this tool anytime that photos need to be edited for use on class blogs, wikis, or sites. In primary grades, use this tool to edit pictures from a field trip, science experiments, and more. Share the editing process with your younger students using your interactive whiteboard or projector. Edit the project together! Encourage older students to use this tool themselves on images for projects or presentations. Use the editor to edit pictures to fit styles of pictures when doing historical reports or to set a mood.

Learn, create, and connect with CraftArtEdu's free online "classes" on video. This colorful site offers free online "classes" on countless art and crafts topics. Topics range from wrapping wire loops to fan fold blends to basic embroidery and much more. Join a class and receive step by step instruction. Find the free class section, and start your new learning adventure. Develop new talents and skills. Some of the videos are not in English, so preview (unless you are looking for language learning!). Don't miss the digital art tutorials about Photoshop!This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Find projects for holidays or that tie in with current units of study on time periods in history, different cultures, or literature being read in class. In world language classes, share one of the videos in French or German and challenge students to follow along with the directions. Then have them try to make their own how-to videos to practice new vocabulary. Use these videos as examples of digital writing for information and have student groups create one of their own. Share this site with your "crafty" students for indoor recess or use the activities in family and consumer science. Share this link on your class website for students to find crafty ways to share knowledge in unusual displays. Some of the videos might even offer ideas they could use as science fair projects testing the strength of different materials.

Foodista is a community of food lovers who share and exchange all things food! Find recipes and cooking ideas, food news, holiday ideas, health and nutrition, video directions, question and answers, blogs, and an rss feed. Add a recipe or share on social media.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Capture every student's heart (or stomach) with Foodista! Introduce on your interactive whiteboard or projector for learning how to write, read, and follow directions. This site is sure to make some stomachs grumble and some mouths water! In math class, explore or multiply fractions used in recipes. In science, FACS, or health class, explore the nutrition side of Foodista. Help students gain a better understanding of diabetes or food allergies. Use to create food for special celebrations of literature or in social studies as you study cultures around the world. Allow students to choose food for special class celebrations. In your FACS class, use the blog area as a weekly update for new recipe, home care, and nutrition ideas.

Remind is a safe and easy way to send reminders to students and parents via text message or email. When sending a text, the site is set up so that students & parents do not see the teachers' phone numbers nor do the teachers see the students' phone numbers. Create an account. Any phone that can receive text messages will receive these. Communication through this site is safe and secure. You only see the names of your students, not their phone number, and they only see your name -- not your cell phone number. Be sure to obtain parental permission FIRST, as standard messaging rates apply.

In the Classroom

Set up accounts for all your classes, and even your extracurricular activities, to send homework, project, and supply reminders. Remind students of upcoming events, practices, or things they need to bring to class or practice. You could also use this to communicate with parents (allow them to sign up for text message updates at back to school night). Share this site the first week of school to save time throughout the entire year. Remind parents of big tests, report cards, field trips, deadlines, back to school night, sneaker days, conferences, and more. Set up a faculty reminder group within your school for emergency closures and more.

Enjoy science activities correlated to Common Core and National Science Standards at this site from the Smithsonian Science Center. The initial game offering, Shutterbugs: Wiggle and Stomp, offers the opportunity to describe movement and motion while visiting exotic animals from the zoo. Game difficulty levels scale up or down based on your response and adults receive printable reports of mastered words. Coming soon is a Memory Match game. These games are device agnostic. Click on the actual game and scroll to the bottom of the page for links to download free app versions from the Google Play or Apple stores.

In the Classroom

Be sure to check out the "About Our Games" portion of the site for game features and information. This site is excellent for use as a classroom center or on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Be sure to share the link with parents on your classroom newsletter or website.

This collection of resources was selected by TeachersFirst editors as the easiest or most useful tools for creating pretests, a must-have when working with gifted students in the regular classroom. This collection is part of a special section of TeachersFirst, Nourishing Gifted Through Technology in Any Classroom.

In the Classroom

You may not always be able to pretest at the start of a new unit, and sometimes an informal assessment will tell you that a student is ready to move beyond the regular curriculum content right away. You may want to wait a day or two before offering a retest, since many truly gifted students will absorb or even seem to "intuit" the full unit of content very quickly after a short exposure. The great thing about using online pretests is that once you create them, you have them for the next year. Consider teaming up with other teachers in your subject/grade to build a library of pretests that you can share.

Brief.ly is a simple way to share a "bundle" of links at the same time. Enter up to 30 links and captions you want to share (one per line or click the wrench for more options). Brief.ly will generate a unique URL. When opened, a Table of Contents page lists the sites included. When you open the bundle, each site appears and tabs appear along the top of the page that allow you to easily jump from one recommended site to the next. This site is very easy to use and helpful for all ages, as long as they can read. With your membership, you can edit the contents of your list later, without resending it or changing the single link.

In the Classroom

Brief.ly is a lifesaver for every classroom, teacher, or school. Whenever you are sharing multiple sites at centers, during small or whole group presentations, or even sites gathered for a research projects, Brief.ly takes away frustration and saves time! Save different content areas, subjects, or study links in one simple click. Gather all grade level websites on your school webpage, and list all classes. Unclutter your own class webpage or blog with just a few links. Sending links to parents or colleagues could not be any easier! Collaboration within classes, groups, or home is a snap! Improve organization for yourself and your class. As students work on group projects, they can share their link list easily. Use a class account so students do not have to register, and you can watch what they are using for sources.

NCES Kids' Zone offers enrichment and informational data. Explore This Day in History, updated daily. Take a poll and compare your own answers with others. Try your problem solving skills with the mindbender. Learn (and use) the word of the day. The Dare to Compare button leads to short quizzes where you can compare your knowledge with others. You can also explore data about your local schools and libraries and even find college information. Note that the upper menus do not work in all browsers, so not all areas of the site are readily accessible.

In the Classroom

Strike an interest in your school and community by finding out where you rank. Investigate college choices. After short quizzes, have a daily comparison of your students to see how they compare in civics, economics, geography, history, mathematics, and science at multiple grade levels. Inspire students to collect data and make their own graphs about school wide topics. Have students create an online graph using Amblegraph (reviewed here). Dig into probability problems to discover the odds.

4 Free Photos offers public domain and free stock images. Preview and download the photos at no cost. Use the search feature to find the image you are looking for. The images on this site are contributed by the photographers for open sharing under Creative Commons. Be aware, there are photos for sale (clearly labeled). Some of the links for "More Free Photos" and other ads take you to outside sites. You may want to advise students to avoid those links. Note that all uses of the photos are supposed to be accompanied by the link to the license (available on each photo's display page).This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Starting a lesson on copyright? With so much social media and access to almost anything on the web, it is important to teach students about copyright and about owner's rights. Use this site to search for photos for presentations, photos, projects, or research. For your ESL/ELL students or speech/language, use the images for them to create their own visual dictionary. World language teachers can also challenge students to use images to illustrate vocabulary or accompany writing. Use images for writing prompts or even to create descriptive sentences. Have one student describe the image as another sketches the image. Now compare the described image to the real image. To find more Creative Commons images for student projects (with credit, of course), try Compfight, reviewed here or PhotoPin, reviewed here.

WeJIT is a simple, powerful online collaboration and decision-making tool. Easily sign up with email, name, and password. You can also sign up using your Google or Twitter account. Use ready-made templates for making decisions, selecting options, brainstorms, debates, and priorities. With each template choose to add an image, video, or PDF/MS Office document (or not). Decide whether your WeJIT is for private or public distribution. Send a link via email, Tweet, or post to your FaceBook or Google+ page. Embed WeJITS in e-publications, blogs, wikis and other applications. It is simple to turn e-mails into social networking and Tweets into discussions without participants having to join anything.

In the Classroom

WeJIT's templates are applicable for every subject at the beginning, middle, or end of a unit. Want student engagement in a BYOD or 1:1 class or to gather student opinions about upcoming activities? Use WeJIT to find out what your students are thinking. Use WeJIT as a way to check for prior knowledge at the start of a unit. Use one to collect answers to simple data questions (favorite food, color, vacation spot, number of siblings etc.) to use in graphing activities. Find out what people believe about various issues or ideas to introduce in class discussions or debates. Keep students thinking outside of class by posing a controversial question related to what you discussed in class today: "What would life be like in the U.S. if Germany had won World War II?" What would you name the next book in the series (for a book read by the class)? Coax participation out of students who are usually very quiet. Use this tool easily in a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have.

This free tool offers real-time collaboration using a virtual whiteboard that can be accessed and modified in the browser on any device! Start instantly with NO membership required! Create as many whiteboard pages as needed, including voice conferencing and text chat. Click at the left on the email icon to invite others to join in live. This tool is unique because it includes audio chat. You have to click to ALLOW your computer's mic to be accessible to Stoodle. Save your whiteboards for later access. Easily upload images within the tool without having to open new tabs to search for them. As with other similar tools, basic drawing tools, image uploads, and colors are available in Stoodle. Share your whiteboard via URL. (An embed option is currently not available in this tool.) Be sure to allow some time to play with the various icons on the Stoodle board. Before any actions can happen on the board, you must select a tool on the right or left side of the board. Add new pages to a board using the arrows at bottom right. Be sure to save the urls for your boards as Favorites, send them to yourself, or copy/paste them into an organized document so you do not "lose" them. Once you close them, you might have trouble finding them again!

In the Classroom

Stoodle is an excellent tool to use for impromptu peer tutoring sessions or hosting online brainstorming sessions. Students can also use it on 1:1 or BYOD devices during class to collaborate on diagrams, brainstorms, or mind maps. This tool is perfect for snow days and school breaks. Use as a place to collect web quest links and information. Solicit input, discussions, or viewpoints from students. Use as a new format for book reports. Use for students to illustrate their personal definitions for vocabulary words. Need an open space for debates or viewpoints? Post assignments, reminders, or study skills. Do you use student scribes or reporters? Use this tool for them to record information from class that you can share via a link on your class web page.

e-learning for kids offers a small collection of resources for environmental learning with elementary students. At the time of this review, there were five detailed lessons on various topics: Global Warming, Energy, Earth's Resources, and Homes for Living Things. Choose any lesson to begin and follow prompts to complete each activity. If you receive a message that your computer doesn't meet minimum system requirements, try clicking the image to launch the course anyway. Our editor's computer accessed and completed all activities despite this message.

In the Classroom

These lessons are perfect for use as mini-lessons on your interactive whiteboard or projector. View and discuss activities together as a class or create a link to lessons for students to complete on classroom computers. Be sure to provide a link to the site on your class webpage or newsletter for students to use at home. Use lessons on this site as part of your Earth Day activities. Have students create a word cloud of the important terms they learn from this site using a tool such as WordItOut (reviewed here).

The Young People's Trust for the Environment (UK) offers a large selection of fact sheets about animals and environmental issues. The information is primarily text-based. Scroll through the alphabetical list of animals to view available fact sheets. Sheets contain an image along with other pertinent information such as habitat, size, food, and daily life. Click the blue box on the upper left side of the page to download and print all information in PDF format. Note: Only text appears on downloaded sheets; images appear as X's. Choose the Environmental Facts link to explore fact sheets with subjects ranging from Acid Rain through Zoos. This site was created in the United Kingdom, so you may notice some slight spelling differences from American English.

In the Classroom

Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Bookmark this site for use with any animal or environmental unit. You will need to pair weaker readers with a stronger reader since the information is almost entirely text. Allow students to choose an animal or environmental topic from the resources available and become "experts." Have students create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here. Challenge students use Ourboox, reviewed here. Ourboox creates beautiful page-flipping digital books in minutes, and you can embed video, music, animation, games, maps and more. Have students create maps of animal habitats using Animaps, reviewed here. Students can add text, images, and location stops.

Use the magic of speech recognition to create emails, dictate notes, or write an essay without ever touching your keyboard. Online Dictation only works in the Chrome browser. Click "Start Dictation," and grant the site permission to connect to your computer's microphone. Begin talking, and watch your words appear on the screen. Dictation detects many different languages so is useful for many non-English speakers. When you finish speaking, export your text using links to Dropbox, Google Drive, your computer, or send as an email.

Since this tool has to connect back to its own servers to "translate" your spoken words to text, it may not have the sensitivity you expect. It is a good idea to test it first yourself before assigning students to use it. You might want to demonstrate how clearly you must speak to make it work.

In the Classroom

Use Online Dictation to dictate homework assignments to post on your class webpage. Demonstrate proper note taking using Online Dictation. Leave this site up in your browser, and add notes throughout your lesson. Save notes to your computer to print and use for future reference. Share this site with students who have difficulty putting thoughts onto paper or students with delayed handwriting skills or processing delays. Let students dictate stories, poems, questions, etc. to print and use. Share Online Dictation with your school's ESL/ELL teacher as a resource for use with their students. Speech and language teachers can try this tool to encourage students to improve articulation. If they speak clearly, their words will "magically" appear in writing!

Comments

The concept is great but the execution is disappointing. The text response is slow and often captured only an occasional word or phrase. Most of what was returned in text was gibberish. This program is not suitable for student use.Dwight, , Grades: 3 - 7